As cricket leagues grow and batters continue to get stronger, six-hitting is becoming more destructive. The sport has seen some of the biggest hitters in history, but some have hit the ball even further.
Former Pakistan batsman Shahid Afridi, known as Boom Boom Afridi, smashed a 153-metre six against Ryan McLaren. This remarkable hit is often cited among the longest sixes ever recorded and is a notable moment in the Biggest Six In Cricket History.
Chris Gayle
In a match for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Gujarat Lions, the Jamaican cricketer Chris Gayle broke the record of highest number of sixes in Twenty20 cricket. The opener, 38, hit 18 sixes in a 207-run innings which earned him the man of the match award. He also became the first player to score more than 10,000 runs in this format.
Known as The Universe Boss, Gayle is one of the most dominant opening batsmen the game has ever seen. He made his debut as a teenager and was soon a regular member of the West Indies team for Tests, ODIs, and T20Is. He built an impressive record across all formats and became the first batsman to have a Test triple-century, an ODI double-hundred, and a T20I century.
He was also the first player to reach 15,000 runs in Twenty20 cricket and he continued playing franchise and other T20 leagues well into his forties. However, the soaring star faced controversy in his career, including a row with the West Indies board following an on-air criticism of the coach and board members.
He is the current leading run-scorer in this year’s Bangladesh Premier League with four matches remaining. His unbeaten 146 off 69 balls was a record-breaking performance which saw him break a record held by another West Indian, Brendon McCullum. His innings also matched the fastest-ever T20 century by a New Zealand batter.
Shahid Afridi
Shahid Afridi is one of Pakistan’s most famous cricketers, both at home and abroad. His aggressive batting and leg-spin bowling have entertained cricket fans around the world for over two decades. In addition to his explosive batting, Afridi has also proven himself as a reliable wicket-taker for Pakistan in both Test and ODI cricket.
The 37-year-old Afridi made his ODI debut in 1996 and has played for his country in all formats of the game. He is a three-time World Cup winner, having scored over 500 runs in the competition and taken 14 wickets in total. Afridi is also a prolific six-hitter, as evidenced by his record-breaking run of 142 Test runs in one innings against England.
Afridi is also an accomplished Twenty20 player, having been named ICC World Twenty20 Player of the Tournament in 2007. He took over the Pakistan captaincy from Younus Khan in 2010 after his team’s victory in that year’s edition of the competition.
Afridi’s big hitting has also seen him notch up some of the sport’s longest sixes. In 2013, he smashed a 158-meter long six in an ODI match against South Africa in Johannesburg. New Zealand’s Martin Guptill is another big-hitting player who is well known for his sixes, and he once hit a 127-meter long six off South African bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe in an ODI match in 2012.
England’s power-hitting all-rounder Liam Livingstone stands fourth on this list with a 122-meter six against Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf in a T20I match in 2021.
Mark Waugh
Mark Waugh was a gifted batsman who could play all formats of cricket. He made his debut in the 1985/1986 season and would become a first class cricket legend in the 1990s. He had an excellent Sheffield Shield average and even won the prestigious Player of the Year award twice. However, he had to wait until 1994 before getting his call up for the Test team.
He grabbed the opportunity with both hands and made an instant impact, scoring a hundred on his debut. He was a big part of the side that took Australia from a team with fighting skills to a world-beating unit. He was a superb player on his day and he loved the big stage of the World Cup tournaments.
Waugh is the only Australian to have scored a century against all the other Test-playing nations. He also shared a record-breaking 239-run partnership with Ricky Ponting in the same innings of the Adelaide Oval Test against India in 2001.
The pair broke the previous record of 223 by Arthur Morris and Sir Donald Bradman in Melbourne back in 1947-48. Shaun and Mitchell Marsh are the latest brothers to follow in their footsteps, forming a partnership of 117 against South Africa at The Oval.
Corey Anderson
Corey Anderson has taken the cricket world by storm after scoring the fastest-ever international century in a one-day international against West Indies. The New Zealand batsman reached the milestone in just 36 balls, beating the previous record of 37 held by Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi.
Anderson has subsequently been linked with a move to the Indian Premier League, but he insists he is focused on cementing his place in the New Zealand side ahead of their five-match ODI and two-test series against India.
Anderson is currently ranked as the No. 4 light heavyweight in the UFC, and he will be fighting veteran Tom Lawlor at UFC 196 on Saturday night in Las Vegas. The former Ultimate Fighter winner is a self-proclaimed perfectionist, and he says that he gets nervous in the closing stages of every training camp.
Anderson, who has scored 14 Test runs at an average of 42, said that it was “satisfying” to score a hundred in his second match for New Zealand. He added that it was nice to share a 140-run partnership with Northern Districts team-mate Kane Williamson. The burly left-hander will be hoping to use his impressive form with the bat to make himself a regular member of the New Zealand squad in all formats.
Liam Livingstone
Liam Livingstone is a 24-year-old batsman who is well known for his huge hitting abilities. Born in Barrow-in-Furness, a port town in Cumbria in North West England, Livingstone made his T20 debut for Nantwich CC in the National Club Knockout Cup in 2015 and stunned cricket fans with a record-breaking innings of 350 off 138 balls against Caldy CC from Liverpool, which included 34 fours and 27 sixes. The Barrovian then broke into Lancashire’s senior side midway through the year and scored a flurry of big scores in white-ball competitions, earning himself an international call-up for England’s 2025 Champions Trophy squad. However, Livingstone endured a subdued tournament and was later released by Royal Challengers Bengaluru ahead of the 2025 IPL auction, with Sunrisers Hyderabad picking him up for a hefty sum.
Martin Guptill
Guptill is a famous New Zealand cricketer who played in all kinds of cricket games, from T20 to Test matches. He is best known as an opening batsman for New Zealand, and he has been one of their greatest run scorers ever. He is also a big hitter and has hit some huge sixes over the course of his career.
He became a big name in New Zealand cricket after topping the State Shield run records in 2007. He made his T20 debut for Auckland in 2009, and he was later named the T20 Player of the Year by NZC. He has also played for Derbyshire County Cricket Club in England’s domestic county cricket.
In ODIs, Guptill has scored plenty of runs and is known for his ability to hit big sixes. He once clouted Proteas bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe for a 127-metre six, and he even cleared the stands in Adelaide with a six that traveled over 143 metres. Guptill also has a knack for taking catches, especially close-in ones. He once dived full-stretch at second slip to catch out Pakistan opener Imam-ul-Haq.
Guptill’s most memorable performance came in the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal against the West Indies, where he scored an unbeaten 237 runs, the highest individual score in a men’s Cricket World Cup match. As one of cricket’s most powerful hitters, Guptill also earned recognition for his long sixes, making him a notable name in the Biggest Six In Cricket History discussion.
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